Question

Engineers designing the next generation of space shuttles plan to include two fuel pumps —one active, the other in reserve. If the primary pump malfunctions, the second is automatically brought on line (alpha = 2, because this is the setup for dealing with sum of 2 Exponential variables). Suppose a typical mission is expected to require that fuel be pumped for at most 50 hours. According to the manufacturer's specifications, pumps are expected to fail once every 100 hours (lambda = 1/100). What are the chances that such a fuel pump system would not remain functioning for the full 50 hours?

Answer 1